'This Week' Transcript: David Plouffe and Lindsey Graham

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AMANPOUR (voice-over): This week, the endgame.

MCCONNELL: Our country is not going to default for the first time in history. That is not going to happen.

AMANPOUR: Now, at the 11th hour, perhaps some cause for optimism.

REID: There are negotiations going on at the White House now on a solution that will avert a catastrophic default.

AMANPOUR: With the whole world watching, the president faces his toughest challenge yet.

OBAMA: The time for putting party first is over.

AMANPOUR: ABC chief political correspondent George Stephanopoulos joins us for the inside story and the very latest, as the crisis nears a climax.

The president's top political adviser, David Plouffe, on hand with the view from the White House.

And then, Tea Party Congress at a crossroads.

MCCAIN: It's unfair. It's bizarro.

AMANPOUR: Republican Senator Lindsey Graham on the search for consensus within his own party.

Also, from Norway to Fort Hood, extremism is back in the headlines. New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly on the very real threat posed by radicals. And we'll take you to Mogadishu, Somalia, where ABC's David Muir is the first U.S. correspondent on the ground reporting on that country's epic famine.

ANNOUNCER: Live from the Newseum in Washington, "This Week" with Christiane Amanpour starts right now.

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AMANPOUR: Welcome to the program.

Lots to get to today, but first, some news since your morning papers. We have new developments to report on the story dominating all others, and that's the flurry of last-minute talks to raise the debt ceiling before the country runs out of money to pay its bills.

And this morning, we're hearing that there is a framework of a deal being worked on, but it's fragile.

And you can see the clock there ticking down to the Tuesday deadline.

Already we're seeing signs of mounting concern on Wall Street. The stock market plunged more than 500 points in the last week, a loss of $700 billion, or just over 4 percent of its value.

But this morning, a glimmer of hope, perhaps. For the very latest, I'm now joined by ABC chief political correspondent George Stephanopoulos.

George, you've been talking to all your sources. Are we at the edge? Or are we pulling back from the edge?

STEPHANOPOULOS: I think we're seeing the beginnings of an end game. It's good to be back on "This Week." And this is just a framework of a deal, as you said, not a final deal at all, but it's designed to get each side its bottom line.

The president gets an extension of the debt ceiling through the election, about $2.4 trillion. Congressional Republicans get the deficit reduction spending cuts that they say needs to meet that $2.4 trillion.

Here's how it would work: a trillion dollars in spending cuts right now.

Then a special congressional committee would be set up designed to report by about Thanksgiving to come up with another trillion or so dollars in spending cuts, maybe a little bit more than that.

The rub is on what happens if this congressional committee doesn't get that $1.4 trillion in deficit reduction. They're working on what they call a trigger that would guarantee spending cuts in both defense and domestic programs if this congressional committee doesn't meet the goal.